This quantity brings jointly seven seminal papers by means of the nice radical historian Geoffrey de Ste. Croix, who died in 2000, on early Christian themes, with a distinct specialize in persecution and martyrdom. Christian martyrdom is a subject which inspires prepared photographs of inhumane persecutors faced by means of Christian heroes who perish for the immediate yet win the long term conflict for acceptance.

The ebook unearths the nexus among faith and politics this day and exhibits that we are living in an interdependent international the place one international civilization is rising and the place the world’s peoples are carrying on with to coalesce round a sequence of values that include powerful Western overtones. either Putin’s Orthodox Russia and areas lower than the keep an eye on of such Islamist teams like ISIS and Al Qaeda resent and try out, in a mostly languishing attempt, to frustrate this sequence of values.

Starting with Saint Barbatianus, a fifth-century wonderworking monk and confessor to the Empress Galla Placidia, this booklet specializes in the alterations within the non secular panorama of Ravenna, a former capital of the overdue Roman Empire, during the heart a long time. in this interval, written tales approximately saints and their relics not just provided counsel and solace yet have been extensively utilized via these residing one of the ruins of a as soon as nice city—particularly its archbishops, priests, and the city aristocracy—to think about its earlier glory.

This e-book depicts the cultural mind's eye of the Italian-Jewish minority from the unification of the rustic to the top of the 1st global warfare. The construction of an Italian countryside brought new difficulties and new possibilities for its electorate. What did it suggest for the Jewish minority? How may contributors of the minority mix and redefine Jewishness and Italianness in a substantially new political and criminal framework?

The possibilities of a liberated life extend beyond institutional religion. African American women’s experience constitutes the fourth source. If black women are the overwhelming majority of black church members and over half of the African American community, then black theology must speak to and reflect the intellectual and emotional concerns and contributions of women. A black theology without African American 36 HEART AND HEAD women would not be a complete and real theology. Indeed, black theology would be hypocritical if it claimed that God was for the liberation of all people yet supported only the minority male issues within the community and church.

The fact that monopolization of wealth exists does not testify to a God-given status or even a natural ability. Monopolization of 50 HEART AND HEAD monies, capital, and resources is a human-created fact; therefore, human beings also can bring about communalism. Politically, the new vision means democracy—a new democracy in contrast to the old style. Decision making begins with the voices and priorities of the majority of earth, the vulnerable and the marginalized. Similarly, the ideal is to have the majority of elected representatives coming from these parts of society.

Similarly, in the 1950s civil rights and 1960s black power movements, African American women faced patriarchy from African American men. The classic story describes a meeting between Stokely Carmichael, then chair of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and some of its black women members during the late 1960s. In this conversation the black women raised questions about the fair treatment and recognition of women in the organization; Carmichael’s response was that the only position for black women in the movement was a “prone” position.